Michael Whalen

Mike Whalen is President and CEO of The Heart of America Group which designs, builds and operates hotels, restaurants and commercial real estate throughout the Midwest. He is also a member of the Job Creators Alliance, a group of current and former CEOs committed to defending the free enterprise system. More information can be found at: http://jobcreatorsalliance.org

In his State of the Union address last month, President Obama raised some eyebrows in saying “I’ve approved fewer regulations in the first three years of my presidency than my Republican predecessor did in his.” While some of the President’s critics immediately figured him to be playing around with the numbers, others took it as evidence that the Administration might be more pro-business than it is usually portrayed.

Elizabeth Warren, liberal candidate for the senate in Massachusetts, recently declared that nobody succeeds on their own in the country. This is true. There are always many people involved in any success. But she took it one step further, stating that success is a gift from civilized society..

Recently, Jan Eberly, the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, wrote a post that essentially amounted to a defense of Washington’s over-regulation, saying to small business owners and entrepreneurs across the country: “There isn’t anything wrong with our regulations. No problem here.”

Politicians love to extol the virtues of small business and praise the entrepreneurs who take risks to create jobs – when it's politically expedient for them to do so. But when the political winds change, the political establishment is quick to take to the airwaves to vilify small business owners for being profitable, dubbing them "millionaires" and calling for an increase in their taxes.

Can you imagine a day in our country when the average household is rich? I can. In fact, if the proper pro-growth policies are pursued our kids and grandkids can actually be what is today considered rich. Let’s do the math.